In an air-conditioning apparatus such as a multi-air-conditioning apparatus installed in a construction such as a building, it is desired to save a space under a state in which heat exchange performance provided by a heat exchanger is maintained or to increase the heat exchange performance under a state in which a whole size is maintained.
Consequently, in an outdoor unit for the air-conditioning apparatus that responds to the above-mentioned request, a proportion of a space occupied by the heat exchanger to an internal space inevitably increases.
For example, in a related-art outdoor unit having a rectangular parallelepiped outer shell, the heat exchanger is arranged along three of four side surfaces, that is, three side surfaces other than a side surface used for maintenance work, in consideration of maintainability.
As a method of increasing the heat exchange performance of the outdoor unit described above, for example, it is conceivable to increase the heat exchanger in size as compared to related-art heat exchangers. Specifically, for example, it is conceivable to arrange the heat exchanger along all the four side surfaces of the outdoor unit.
Further, a controller configured to control devices accommodated inside the outdoor unit is provided to the outdoor unit.
The controller is arranged in a flow passage of air flowing through the outdoor unit, and hence hinders ventilation. Thus, it is not preferred to arrange the controller at a position where a wind speed is particularly high, for example, in the vicinity of a fan casing such as in an upper part of the outdoor unit.
When the heat exchanger is arranged along all the side surfaces of the outdoor unit, however, there is left no space to arrange the controller that is required to be accessed externally through an opening port. Further, in this case, the heat exchanger is arranged even along the surface that is used for the maintenance work or other operations. Thus, the devices accommodated inside the outdoor unit cannot be maintained or replaced.
Consequently, to solve the problems described above, there has been proposed that the controller be arranged such that a part of the heat exchanger is not arranged at, of all the side surfaces of the outdoor unit, a portion around a predetermined surface that is used for the maintenance work or other works, for example, at a front right corner or at a front left corner (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
In this manner, the space for arrangement of the controller can be ensured while the heat exchanger is arranged along all the side surfaces of the outdoor unit.
Further, to reduce the space for arrangement of the controller as much as possible, there has been proposed the controller having a multi-layer structure of two or more layers in which one of the controller layers in the front side is of an opening-closing type to be openable and closeable (see, for example, Patent Literature 2).